U.S. Beach Teams Take on Aruba

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Nov. 30, 2012) – Two U.S. beach volleyball teams went undefeated in pool play on Friday at the NORCECA Beach Circuit event in Aruba, the final NORCECA event of the 2012 season.

The No. 1 U.S. women’s team of Tealle Hunkus (Girard, Ohio) and Summer Ross (San Diego, Calif.) are in a three-team pool and defeated St. Lucia’s Indira Laurencin and Dania Hamilton, 21-6, 21-3 on Friday. Hunkus and Ross will complete pool play on Saturday against Trinidad & Tobago’s Shenelle Gordon and La-Teisha Joseph.

The No. 1 U.S. men’s team of Avery Drost (Hawthorne, Calif.) and Will Montgomery (Santa Barbara, Calif.) are also in a three-team pool and beat Nicaragua’s Gerald Umana and Henry Hernandez, 21-13, 21-14. Drost and Montgomery will complete pool play on Saturday against Costa Rica’s Julio Alvarez and Luis Sandoval.

The U.S. No. 2 women’s team of Kirby Burnham (Newport Beach, Calif.) and Stevi Robinson (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) is in a four-team pool and went 1-1 on Friday. The pair first fell to Puerto Rico’s Yarleen Santiago and Yamileska Yantin, 21-16, 21-11. It came back in its second match to defeat Costa Rica’s Valeria Valenciano and Francine Morales, 21-14, 21-17. Burnham and Robinson will finish pool play on Saturday against Puerto Rico’s Darian Acevedo and Tatiana Encarnacion.

The U.S. No. 2 men’s team of Matt Motter (Encinitas, Calif.) and Derek Olson (Eugene, Ore.) went 0-2 in its four-team pool on Friday. First the U.S. team fell to Mexico’s Lombardo Ontiveros and Juan Virgen, 21-17, 19-21, 15-12 in the longest match of the day at 1 hour, 3 minutes.

Then the U.S. pair lost to Trinidad & Tobago’s Fabien Whitfield and DanieI Williams, 14-21, 22-20, 15-8 in 54 minutes. Motter and Olson will finish pool play on Saturday against Kyle Browne and Hugh Sealey of Barbados.

More information about the NORECA Beach Circuit is available on the NORCECA web site.